Community welcomes new medical trainees
By Contributor
Members of the Health and Hospital Committee of the LCCDTS were just some of the community members on hand to welcome seven new medical trainees to the Lower Columbia recently. The medical students and residents are part of two growing programs that are expected to have a positive, long term impact on recruiting new doctors to the region.
Through the UBC Rural Family Practice Residency Program, four medical residents a year will spend two years in the Kootenay Boundary. While the residents will split their time among several communities, a large portion of their training will happen at KBRH. At the end of their two years in the program, the residents will be ready to practice medicine.
The medical students are in the area as part of the UBC Integrated Clinical Clerkship Program. Currently in its fifth year of successful operations, the students spend their third year of medical studies doing rotations at KBRH, at Kootenay Lake Hospital in Nelson and at family medicine clinics throughout the Lower Columbia.
At a welcome dinner for the newcomers, members of the Health and Hospital Committee presented the students and residents with welcome packages filled with coupons and freebies to help them get out and explore all of the communities of the Lower Columbia.
“We are really grateful to the businesses and organizations that contributed to the welcome packages,” says Don Nutini, chair of the committee. “We wanted to let these young people know we are excited to have them in the region for the next one to two years, and we want them to have a great experience.”
Welcome packages included free passes to Birchbank Golf Course, a dinner special at The Colander, a free day of skiing at Red Mountain, Smoke Eaters tickets, along with passes for bowling, swimming, free coffee and more.
The welcome package initiative is part of a Medical Professional Welcome Program, recently launched by the Health and Hospital Committee. Program volunteers provide tours of the region to medical professionals who are considering moving to the area, or to those who have recently arrived and want to better understand all that the area has to offer.
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